It can be a very difficult up hill battle as they were likely not educated on finances growing up.

Chris mentioned 5 or more being commercial - that is correct and it is very hard to be approved without a very strong history of rentals, which you have some but it will still be an uphill battle. 

However, one of the owners in the association moved and started renting out his home and there was a good 5 year battle between the owner and the association.

I recently found myself in an interesting scenario where myself and a seller are battling over an earnest money deposit due to differing views on the definition of a mortgage financing contingency.

Hello BP,My wife’s sister-in law passed away last year after battling cancer for a year.

Looks like you're already making headway on 2 of them -- just getting yourself out there and being in the thick of it all is half the battle. 

I'm not making a bunch of money off this place that I can afford a huge legal battle over it, and these guys sounds like that's the direction they are going to make me go in.

I agree it seems like an uphill battle to get someone to agree to it, but I'm hopeful that once the right owner sees the mutual benefit, we could make it work with multiple properties.

They told me he should have immediately taken steps to mitigate damages, i.e. dry out the carpet, walls etc. so he might have a bit of a battle on his hands with them. 

My dept. is currently battling with an FHA rep. who will not approve an FHA loan on an REO we have for sale because he is classifying our practice of liquidating REOs as "Flipping".We recently aquired a portfolio of NPAs from Lehman Bros to service.